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Arsenal Eye €20m Move For Former Barcelona Hitman – Reports

By on October 4, 2014

Reports today claim that Arsenal are ready to battle it out with Liverpool over the signing of €20m-rated Lazio striker Keita Balde Diao.

The 19-year-old used to be on the books at Barcelona and came through their much-famed La Masia youth academy before moving to Serie A in 2011.

In his final year in Spain he scored an incredible 47 goals while on loan at UE Cornella and has gone on to establish himself as a first team regular at Lazio.

Liverpool were strongly linked with a move for the teenager over the summer but were put off by Lazio’s €30m asking price.

However, the Express claim the Italians have now lowered their demands to a more realistic €20m (£15m) and it’s suggested that this has alerted Arsene Wenger.

The newspaper states that the boss is unconvinced by Yaya Sanogo and Joel Campbell so wants to bring in another young striker to compete with Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud, and is now eyeing a move for Balde Diao.

The Spaniard is certainly a huge talent but I think it would be something of an unnecessary risk to spend around £15m on a third/fourth choice striker.

I also don’t see the boss spending that kind of money on another attacker until he’s resolved our defensive midfield and centre-back issues.